San Leandro Arts, Culture and Library Commission Meeting - April 15, 2025
San Leandro Arts, Culture and Library Commission Meeting - April 15, 2025
The Arts, Culture and Library Commission of San Leandro met on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at 6:50 PM (agenda called for 6:30 PM) in the Trustees Room of the Main Library. The meeting was chaired by Chair Scotland and included roll call, approval of prior minutes, staff reports, and a major action item on the 2025 Arts & Culture Grant Program recommendations. Seven grants totaling $46,500 were approved for funding, leaving $28,500 unallocated for future discussion.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes of the March 19, 2025 meeting were approved by unanimous vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made.
Discussion Items
- Library Services Staff Report: Assistant Library Director Sherwood reported on the status of the Comedy in the Plaza event. The city received three bids and, with additional end-of-year budget flexibility, decided to expand the event into a three-show Comedy Festival (Friday evening, Saturday daytime, and a later show potentially at a different venue). The festival is a new initiative and promotional materials will be released soon.
- 2025 Arts & Culture Grant Program Recommendations: The Grants Committee (Chair Scotland, Vice Chair Miller, Commissioner Gillary) presented their recommendations. Out of 22 applications ($133,500 requested), eight were disqualified for incompleteness and five were not recommended due to criteria concerns (e.g., insufficient community impact). The committee recommended funding seven applicants: four individuals (Elonita Makani O'Malley for a film screening and oral history, $5,000; Eric Shay for San Leandro Nightscapes oil paintings, $4,000; Laura Sidio for Cree Native Visualizations workshop, $5,000; Andrea Guskin for Local Roots collaborative art, $5,000) and three nonprofits (Jupiter Corner for a downtown mural by a well-known Bay Area artist, $7,500; SLIA for a downtown garbage enclosure mural, $10,000; Bethel Community Church for a community mural on church property facing Bancroft Avenue, $10,000). Total recommended: $46,500.
- Discussion on Bethel Community Church Mural: Several commissioners expressed concern about funding a mural on a church property, given the grant guidelines prohibiting religious or political purposes. Staff confirmed with the City Attorney that the grant is permissible as long as the mural does not contain religious or proselytizing themes. Some commissioners advocated for requiring a mock-up of the mural before painting to ensure compliance, but others worried about censorship. Ultimately, it was agreed that the grant committee would review the mock-up for this specific project.
- Remaining Funds Discussion: Commissioner Cassidy asked about the remaining $28,500 (from the $75,000 allocation). Options discussed included reopening the grant program for incomplete applications or carrying funds over to next year. Staff noted the city's preference against carryovers. Chair Scotland suggested placing the topic on the agenda for the May meeting to decide how to use the funds, noting the comedy festival might also need support.
- Arts Endowment Committee: Vice Chair Miller reported on research into the City of Alameda's "1% for Art" ordinance, which raised $600,000 from 2017-2024. Alameda has a dedicated staff member partially assigned to arts. The committee recommended inviting a representative from Alameda to the May meeting to present their model, with the goal of proposing a similar ordinance for San Leandro.
- Grants Committee: The committee was thanked for its work reviewing 22 applications.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to approve the 2025 Arts & Culture Grant Program recommendations passed unanimously: The seven applicants (listed above) will receive grants totaling $46,500.
- The commission agreed to discuss the use of the remaining $28,500 at the May 2025 meeting, including possible carryover or reallocation to the comedy festival.
- The Arts Endowment Committee will research 1% for art ordinances in neighboring cities and may invite a speaker from Alameda to the May meeting.
- The comedy festival expansion was approved administratively; the commission was supportive but no formal vote was taken.
Meeting Transcript
Library Commission meeting of April 15th, 2025 to order at 6 50 p.m. Bill, will you please take the roll call? Yes. Chair Scotland. Present. Vice Chair Miller. Commissioner Alvarez. Present. Commissioner Cassidy. Present. Commissioner Gillary. Commissioner Ridsdale. Present. Commissioner Smith. Present. Commissioner Seo. Commissioner Velasquez. All right. I count five, sufficient for a quorum. Right. Yay. Item two, announcements. There are no announcements. Moving to item three, consent calendar. Minutes of the March 19th, 2025 meeting. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of March 19, 2025? So move. Can I go to seconds? Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Moving on to item four, library services staff report and announcements. Thank you, Chair Scotland. Um, I have a couple of items I wanted to uh report out. Um is on the uh comedy in the plaza request for bid, which uh closed in late February. And uh wanted to let the commission know that we received three bids for the 2025 Comedy in the Plaza, and after consideration of those three bids, those three solid bids from very qualified producers, the library department with the city manager's office decided that we are going to do the comedy festival, which we've been talking about for some time. Um to basically expand it from just comedy in the plaza to uh a larger event comedy in the comedy festival. So we're able to fund that because we're at the end of the fiscal year and we're doing uh planning for uh the budget for the end of the fiscal year and realized we could make it work financially. Uh it's not a small feat, but we're gonna do it. And now we're working out the details um and the contracts with each of the producers, and we're super excited to finally go forward with this festival because we wanted to you know talked about uh taking it to that level for this uh for a while. Um so we've we've got to wrap up those contracts and then we'll move on to a promotional push because it's gonna be basically three different shows is what we're looking at over one weekend. Um so we need to be able to do a big promotional push, and as soon as we have those contracts in place, so you should see that promotional material before the next commission meeting. So they're funding all three proposals, in other words, to make a festival. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
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